While in the team hotel's public bath, Futoshi Kobayashi said to me, "The pitching staff's chemistry has really improved since your arrival." When I heard that, it made me really happy. That made me think back to last year and whether or not I ever tried to find something nice to say about the Bay Stars. This year, I'd like to find a lot of good thing about this team and praise it as much as I can.

When he finished, one of the coaches quipped, "[Then you better] make sure you stick around at Ichi-gun!"